Classic Rock News

Josh Freese is no longer the drummer in Foo Fighters.

In an Instagram post Friday, Freese writes, “The Foo Fighters called me Monday night to let me know they’ve decided ‘to go in a different direction with their drummer.'”

“No reason was given,” Freese continues. “Regardless, I enjoyed the past two years with them, both on and off stage, and I support whatever they feel is best for the band.”

Freese was announced as the new Foo Fighters drummer in 2023, stepping into the large shoes left by the late Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022. Prior to joining the Foos, Freese had played in bands including Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, The Offspring and A Perfect Circle. 

“In my 40 years of drumming professionally, I’ve never been let go from a band, so while I’m not angry—just a bit shocked and disappointed,” Freese writes. “But as most you know I’ve always worked freelance and bounced between bands so, I’m fine.”

He concludes, “Stay tuned for my ‘Top 10 possible reasons Josh got booted from the Foo Fighters’ list.”

Earlier in the week, Foo Fighters announced their first show of 2025: the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix in October. It’s also the band’s first announced live performance since Dave Grohl‘s 2024 infidelity scandal.

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Foreigner has released a Spanish-language version of the band’s hit “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

The recording, dubbed “Quiero Saber Si Es Amor,” features vocals by Foreigner guitarist/singer Luis Maldonado and Mexican musician Joy Huerta of the Grammy-winning duo Jesse & Joy.

You can listen to “Quiero Saber Si Es Amor” now via digital outlets.

Foreigner recently wrapped a tour of Latin America, during which Maldonado handled lead vocals in place of longtime singer Kelly Hansen, who was unable to make the trek. Additionally, originally frontman Lou Gramm sang with the band during select songs on the tour.

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Bruce Springsteen‘s criticism of President Donald Trump‘s administration during his Land of Hope and Dreams tour kickoff in England on Wednesday has drawn a response from the president himself.

As previously reported, The Boss told the Manchester crowd, “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”

He continued, “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against the authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”

On Friday, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to write, “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States.”

“Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy,” Trump continued, while labeling Springsteen a “pushy, obnoxious JERK.”

“This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare,'” Trump wrote.

Springsteen’s tour continues with a second show in Manchester on Saturday.

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Bob Dylan continues to surprise with his sets on Willie Nelson‘s ongoing Outlaw Music Festival tour.

After bringing back the classic “Mr. Tambourine Man” for the first time in 15 years at the tour’s launch on Tuesday, Dylan debuted a surprising cover of the 1972 Ricky Nelson hit “Garden Party” during a stop in Chula Vista, California, on Thursday.

Beyond the sheer randomness of it, Dylan covering “Garden Party” is notable since it actually name-checks the folk legend. In the lyrics, the late Nelson sang, “Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan’s shoes wearing his disguise,” a reference to both Bob and George Harrison‘s pseudonym. 

In fan-shot footage of the performance, you can hear Dylan sing the line featuring his own name.

Dylan will be touring on the Outlaw Music Festival into September. 

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Simple Minds launch their Alive & Kicking tour on Friday, and it marks their first U.S. tour in almost six years.

Frontman Jim Kerr tells ABC Audio he’s really looking forward to getting back out in front of American audiences, but there are certainly some pressures that come with a U.S. show.

“Americans go out to have a good time,” he says. “But you better deliver it. You better be good. You better be energetic. You’d better want to be there. And if you’re like that, the audience will encourage you to go even further on the night.”

The tour coincides with this year’s 40th anniversary of their hit album Once Upon a Time, which featured such songs as “Sanctify Yourself,” “All The Things She Said,” and “Alive and Kicking.” Kerr says their set will include several songs from the album.

He notes, “We’ll definitely be conjuring up the spirit of that era.”

But even if someone doesn’t know every song, Kerr says the band feels confident they’ve got songs that “the mood of them is so special live,” fans will think they’re great.

And after such a long time away from the States, Kerr says the band is eager to give audiences a good show.

“There’s a real determination, you know?” he says. “We wanna give 100% anywhere we play and every night, but … when you haven’t played for a long time, you feel a bigger onus to really rise to the occasion and we’ll certainly be doing that.” 

The Alive & Kicking tour, featuring special guests Soft Cell and Modern English, begins Friday in Ridgefield, Washington. A complete list of dates can be found at SimpleMinds.com.

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Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl will appear on a new track from pop star Ed Sheeran.

Sheeran revealed on his Instagram Story that his upcoming song “Drive,” featured on F1 The Album, the companion to the upcoming Brad Pitt film F1, will feature Grohl on drums, as well as John Mayer on guitar.

“A lot of fun making this,” Sheeran added of the hard-driving track, which he previewed in the post.

F1 stars Pitt as a former F1 racer who was forced to retire after a horrible crash and is asked to return to racing to mentor a racing prodigy.

Both the album and the movie are out June 27.

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Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney has given fans an update following the band’s cancellation of their tour. The band previously announced he’d suffered a “non-life-threatening medical emergency” before their show at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on May 8.

The rocker reached out to fans on Instagram in a post titled “THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE WTF?”

Kinney addressed fans who came out to the Mohegan Sun show, as well as those who had tickets to their other dates, and thanked them for their understanding.

“It’s not lost on the band and myself that you spend money, make plans and alter your schedules to come and see us, and it’s deeply disappointing to have had this happen,” he writes. “I was very much looking forward to getting back out there and playing with the band again, and it’s been a difficult but necessary decision to make.”

He explains that he’s usually not happy about going public with health issues, but notes, “I understand that people are concerned.”

Kinney said that when doctors advised “against playing in the short term” he went through the five stages of grief, offering up his unique take on them.

“I finally concluded that medical doctors with many hard-earned degrees on their walls might know a bit more about health than a musician with some shiny spray-painted records on his wall,” he said. “The outpouring of love, concern and well wishes has been both extremely humbling and very much appreciated.”

He ended his post by offering, “The good news is that I’m going to be fine and I’m going to live. The bad news (for some of you?) is that I’m going to be fine and I’m going to live.”

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The Kinks are continuing the celebration of their 60th anniversary. After releasing two anniversary compilations, The Journey – Part 1 and The Journey – Part 2 in 2023, they are now set to drop the final release in the series, The Journey – Part 3, in July.

The new installment will follow the band’s career with RCA/Arista from 1977 to 1984, which was a breakthrough for The Kinks in America.

The two-disc compilation features songs handpicked by Ray Davies and Dave Davies, including a disc of 11 remastered tracks like “Come Dancing,” the band’s highest-charting single in the U.S., “Destroyer” and “Living On A Thin Line.” The second disc features a never-before-released live concert from the band’s archives, a recording of their show at London’s Royal Albert Hall on July 11, 1993.

“As far as performances go, it was a high point achievement of The Kinks,” Dave says of the show.

As a preview of the compilation, the band has released two tracks: the 2025 remaster of “Destroyer” and the Royal Albert Hall performance of “I’m Not Like Everybody Else.” Both are available now via digital outlets.

The Journey – Part 3 will be released July 11 as a two-CD or two-LP set, with track-by-track commentary from the Davies brothers. There will also be digital and HD digital versions of the compilation. All formats are available for preorder now.

The Kinks started their 60th anniversary celebration with the release of The Journey – Part 1 in March 2023 and followed that with The Journey – Part 2 in November 2023.

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After debuting at #1 on the U.K. Albums chart, the soundtrack to Pink Floyd’s rereleased concert movie Pink Floyd at Pompeii: MCMLXXII has landed on the U.S. charts as well.

The soundtrack was the first full-length live recording of the concert. According to Billboard, it has debuted at #3 on the Top Album Sales chart, moving over 20,000 copies, the biggest sales week for Pink Floyd in over a decade.

The album also landed in the top 10 on several other charts, including the Vinyl Albums chart, where it’s at #2 after selling 12,500 vinyl copies. It also lands at #2 on the Top Rock Albums chart, #3 on the Top Rock Alternate Albums chart and at #1 on the Indie Store Albums Sales chart.

As for the all-genre Billboard 200, the album is at #28, making it the 15th top-40 album of Pink Floyd’s career and the 30th to land on the Billboard 200.

Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII is a film of the band’s October 1971 performance at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Italy, which was the first live concert ever to take place at the site. A remastered version of the movie was released in theaters in April.

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R.E.M. has contributed a signed guitar to a new Sweet Relief Music Fund auction to benefit Music’s Mental Health Fund, which provides financial aid to those in the music industry in need of mental health services.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have offered up a black Rickenbacker 360 Thinline for the auction, signed by all four members of the band – Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry. It is estimated to sell for $2,000.

Other items in the auction include an autographed copy of Nickelback’s Live From Nashville album, and two friends and family tickets to a Coldplay Music of the Spheres show, plus a signed drum skin played during the tour. 

Music’s Mental Health Fund is a partnership between Sweet Relief and Backline. More info can be found at SweetRelief.org.

A full list of items up for auction can be found at CharityBuzz.com.

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